Data mining doesn’t work
The most extensive government report to date on whether terrorists can be identified through data mining has yielded an important conclusion: It doesn’t really work, notes Cnet News.

A National Research Council report concludes that automated identification of terrorists through data mining (such as phone, medical, and travel records or Web sites visited) or any other mechanism “is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts.”  There are inevitably false positives that result in “ordinary, law-abiding citizens and businesses” being incorrectly flagged as suspects.

The authors conclude the type of data mining that government bureaucrats would like to do can’t work. “If it were possible to automatically find the digital tracks of terrorists and automatically monitor only the communications of terrorists, public policy choices in this domain would be much simpler.  But it is not possible to do so.”

Image from joanofarctan.  Creative Commons license.

New bill against DHS laptop seizure practices
A new bill written by US Senators Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., has privacy-protecting safeguards.

The Travelers Privacy Protection Act would allow border agents to search electronic devices only if they had reasonable suspicions of wrongdoing.  In addition, the legislation would limit the length of time that a device could be out of its owner’s possession to 24 hours, after which the search becomes a seizure, requiring probable cause.

View Sen. Feingold’s press release on the bill.  [via Slashdot]

I was intrigued by the Onion Map site that Amit Argawal posted about since I have a fascination with maps.  These maps of a selection of the world’s popular cities feature an interesting, tourist-centered point of view of the central part of the city and its major attractions.  Don’t expect to see the environs as well.

I checked out London, Chicago and Seattle — three places I am relatively familiar with — to get an idea of how the maps might best be used and how they differ from other map sources such as Google Maps.

In Chicago, for instance, I noticed that 3D images of buildings of interest to tourists, such as the Water Tower Place, stand up tall.  What is missing to those familiar with the territory are all the other sky scrapers around it such as the many condo towers and other businesses.  This view might not work as well as Google Maps 3D views to help people identify one place from the other.

But for the tourist wanting the major attractions, these maps are full of information.  In Seattle, for instance, you can see in the image below that one can search for a place then access information about it such as address, hours of operation, fees and so forth.  I wouldn’t rely entirely on this information, however.  I checked Onion Maps visitor fee information to the Space Needle with the latter’s own web site and found that Onion Maps was inaccurate.  In the second image below, you can get an idea of the complete scope of information available to select.

Web search with My Location (Google)
As a long-time user of Windows mobile devices, I was interested in the news about Google’s use of the Gears Geolocation API to get an approximate ID on where you’re located when you search.  The API uses the same Cell ID technology Google uses for Google Maps on mobile devices.

So if you are out of your home territory and searching for a local place, Google will find both your results and your location.  You don’t have to type in your location as you travel around.

At this time only a handful of devices are supported.  “To check and see if your device is supported, head to ‘www.google.com’ on your mobile web browser.  A ‘My Location’ link should be available right under the search box.  You may have to refresh the page to see the link.  If refreshing doesn’t help then your device probably isn’t supported at the moment.  My Location is a small, but more than welcomed feature for Google Local search,” says Read/WriteWeb.

Artweaver free Windows download alternative to Photoshop
Artweaver may lack the polish and advanced features sets of Photoshop, says Lifehacker, but it is so much like Photoshop that folks familiar with that software will find Artweaver easy and intuitive.

Artweaver is a robust photo editing software package that includes layer management, image cloning, and many common filters available in Photoshop.  Best of all, it’s a free download (Windows only) and is available as a full install or in a portable version.

Zoom in to selected locations (click on the camera icons) in Australia for a Google Street View.  [via Google Blogoscoped]

The Google Maps team has been very busy this week introducing new features, including walking directions, a redesign of the printed directions page, the redesigned Google Maps interface, and the Avoid Tolls feature.

To get an overview of the changes, see the well-made brief video tutorial.

Another new feature for Google Maps: get walking directions for fairly short trips and Google Maps will try to find you a route that’s direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when they know about them.

The app is in Beta since there are naturally some unknowns, such as whether sidewalks or pedestrian bridges are available.  You are reminded to use caution.  But there is an advantage in many places because driving directions will attempt to guide you the right way when one-way streets exist.  That is a factor that walkers don’t need to consider.

Google Operating System Blog offers this tip:  if you only see driving directions, copy the permalink of the page by clicking on “Link to this page”, append &dirflg=w and paste the new URL in the address bar.

Directions can be printed, emailed, bookmarked or embedded in a site.  You can also save them as a custom map,  just click on “Link to this page”, copy the link, add &output=kml at the end and then create a new map in the My Maps tab by importing the KML file.

I really don’t know what to think — laugh or cry — about this report I found on Slashdot that The Washington Times claims that at least one senior official in the Department of Homeland Security is considering replacing air travelers’ boarding passes with a GPS-enabled shock bracelet.

The device would make it possible to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her baggage (OK, I wouldn’t mind if they knew where my bags were), and to shock passengers remotely if they got unruly.

The promotional video from Lamperd Less Lethal website makes it sound quite reasonable that the whole family would like to be tagged with this GPS-enabled, shock bracelet to make us feel “safe” when flying our unfriendly skies.

So, is this a joke, or what?  The Times says that according to a letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, to the inventor whom he had previously met with, he wrote, “To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in…the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”  In one part of the letter, Mr. Ruwaldt confirmed, “It is conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes.”  To be fair, the letter principally addresses detaining people at borders.

The Times author goes on to ask, “Would every paying airline passenger flying on a commercial airplane be mandated to wear one of these devices?  I cringe at the thought.  Not only could it be used as a physical restraining device, but also as a method of interrogation, according to the same aforementioned letter from Mr. Ruwaldt.”  Of course, if not everyone were required to don a bracelet, I guess that airline personnel would be applying one of those famous FBI profiles on the spot to decide who would have the honor.

Fires continue to flare in California as dry lightning threatens parched country.  More storms are expected.

To keep up with danger zones, visit the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection site where much information is available and where a statewide interactive Google fire map and another statewide California Wildfires fire map can be accessed.

The latter explains how contained the various fires are, how many acres are involved, and gives information about the properties threatened.

From the Google map you can select named fires in the right-hand column and a pop-up appears on the map with detailed information, including the date and time of the last update.  Another advantage of this map is that it shows highways, and therefore is particularly useful if you are traveling in the northern part of the state where most of the fire danger exists.

If you must travel by air, it’s good to know about airfare pricing rules and about services such as Farecast that help you know when to buy.

Some of the basic rules are fairly well-known, such as Europe is expensive in summer, and traveling mid-week is usually cheaper than on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

But did you know that a fare found on Saturday night may be cheaper on Tuesday?  And unless you are traveling during a holiday season (when you need to buy as far ahead as possible), the cheapest time to buy your ticket is likely to be 2 to 8 weeks in advance.

As airlines continue to cut capacity, it will be interesting to see whether any of these rules change, or whether it will just be that all tickets are more costly.

Check out these tips by Farecast founder Oren Etzioni in this Wired Mazazine article.

California fires map
Google Lat Long Blog has a map of the many fires currently plaguing California.  More thunderstorms (with potential lightning strikes) are in the forecast.  Find the danger zones here.

Web2book for offline viewing of web pages, RSS feeds
Free Windows-only Web2book helps you read web pages, Wikipedia articles and RSS feeds offline.  You can download and convert RSS feeds, Web sites, Project Gutenberg books, Wikipedia entries, Crossword Compiler crossword, Microsoft Reader .Lit files, and other sources into other formats such as  HTML, RTF, LRF or PDF files.  [via Digital Inspiration]

30+ updated Firefox 3 extensions
Mashable lists the most useful updated Firefox 3 extensions for you.  Covers social bookmarking and many more.